Earlier this month, we were honored to host fourteen students from Missouri University of Science and Technology. They participated in the The Miner Challenge, which is an Alternative Spring Break program. Their group was one of six teams traveling throughout the nation volunteering their time to work on community development projects, hunger issues, hurricane Katrina relief, and wildlife and animal refuges.

Throughout the course of five days, even in snow, they contributed 378 hours of volunteer service at Care and Share Food Bank. WOW! The students worked with Donna Ross, our Garden and Kitchen Coordinator, amending and building beds.

Laying out a sprinkler system for efficient water usage.

Now we can water simply with drip irrigation, which frees us up to concentrate on other garden tasks: planting, weeding, and otherwise maintaining 15,000 square feet of garden space.

And cleaning out our greenhouse, which made an immense difference.

Before

After

Team Leader Jake Hale said, “It’s moving to be part of an organization that addresses a whole half of the state. 21.5 million pounds of food distributed is huge!”

Malik Ndiaye, student, said that he “got excited to see the sprinkler work because we’ve been putting so much time in the garden and seeing everything come together, test it out and seeing results was exciting.”

Student Darian Johnson noted that “food is energy, food is nourishment, and when you are hungry you can’t do your best.”

While spending time here they learned a lot! Xinyi Li from China said that she wanted learn about how we are addressing hunger so she can share what she has learned with those in her country that are struggling with food insecurity.  

What an awesome group of students! Thank you Missouri University for sharing the time and talents of these up-and-coming community leaders.